This invention relates to a reverse conducting thyristor device including a thyristor unit and a diode unit interconnected in parallel opposition and formed into a single semiconductor device and a process of producing the same.
The above described type of reverse conducting thyristor devices has previously comprised a thyristor unit surrounded by a diode unit in a single wafer of semiconductive material and a pair of electrodes disposed in ohmic contact with the opposite main face of the wafer to be common to both units and serving to shortcircuit emitter junctions formed between a plurality of discrete emitter regions disposed on each surface of the wafer and the associated base layer of the thyristor unit with a central gate electrode disposed in ohmic contact with one of the base layer within a central opening of the associated electrode. The shorted emitter configuration as above described is advantageous in that at high temperatures or with high rates of increase in forward voltage the turn-off time decreases to render the forward blocking ability high, but it is disadvantageous in that the emitter function is impeded because the emitter regions and the adjacent base layer are shortcircuited on the surface of the junction by the associated electrode.